A heads-up for everyone in Vancouver that likes good comics, literature, art, design and non-fiction: the bookstore I work at, Sophia Books (450 W. Hastings) is having a 30% off sale on almost all of our English language stock (except magazines, language reference materials and tattoo books) right now until the end of May (or until we decide otherwise).

The wall of translated manga? Gotta go. Those Bukowski novels? Yep, on sale. That awesome typography book from Die Gestalten Verlag? That too.

So come on down and take advantage of us… er, I mean the sale, ASAP. ‘Cause you don’t want to get down here after all of the animation and design students have ravaged the stock and had first pick—that would be sad.

A couple from column A and one or two from columns B and C. Take your pick.

Personal:
- I went to the dentist the other day for the first time in fifteen-or-so years. Coincidentally, I also have dental coverage for the first time in fifteen-or-so years. It wasn’t particularly taxing (aside from riding public transit to Richmond) but the bad news was two cavities (which apparently can be fixed in a 1/2 hour) and all four of my wisdom teeth (which will require general anaesthetic and more than a 1/2 hour). Bah. I’m more upset about the wisdom teeth than anything else, mostly because they’re not (and haven’t been) bothering me. Yes yes, better that they take them out before they do start causing me grief, but still. The one awesome part about the clinic, though, are the TVs. Ceiling-mounted TVs to which they give you headphones and a remote while they dig around in your mouth. Hell, I got to watch nearly an entire episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation while I was getting cleaned, but since they finished quickly I don’t know how it ends. Will Picard and Dr. Crusher die in the strange alien arms-dealer cave? I’ll never knownow. *sigh*
- Anxious to rekindle and old friendship, a week or so ago I emailed my friend Sue (to whom I haven’t spoken in several years now–stupid time flying by) and she emailed me back today from a prolonged vacation somewhere next to a river in Thailand saying how glad she is to hear from me. I love global communications. That is all so incredibly awesome.

Oscars:
- I’m glad Marty finally won one. I know it’s all politics and they just chose The Departed because of the very real possibility he could kick off before they slid him a Best Director nod, but honestly–it’s about fuckin’ time.
- Also, I’ve been saying Helen Mirren is hot for over a decade now. Is everyone else just catching on?

Shopping:
- Let’s face it–having something electronic wake you up sucks. It doesn’t matter what exactly the alarm is or what it says or does, the fact is it’s jarring you awake against your will. The only product I’ve seen that mitigates this torment with something rather soothing and refreshing is this new alarm clock that wakes you up with eleoquently announced Stephen Fry compliments, in the tradition of his role as Jeeves on Jeeves & Wooster. Perversely, this clock is so cool I could see myself setting the alarm on my days off just to hear it. I could also see myself fully ignoring it, but that’s prerogative of the master of the house.

Art:
- Black metal photographs. I tried to figure out something clever to say, but words fail. Totally brutal.

So, what’s new this week? More writing, more research (should that be “Mo’ Writin’ Mo’ Reserch”?) and Mrs. C is off in delightful Calgary getting drunk with her co-workers.

There’s really not a lot to report on other than that (I mean, I could tell you about all the research I’ve done on volcanic phenomena, but I’m pretty sure you don’t wanna know), so I’ll just post a couple of links:

PlanetQuest: New Worlds Atlas: How awesome is it that you can check out every single planet that NASA knows about, zooming in and getting info on them in a 3-D model? Also, how awesome are belly-dancing punk-y astromoners? The answer to both questions is a not surprising “super-awesome.”

Philip Straub: I think he is one of my new favourite artists. Check out all of his stuff, but take special care to flip through his “Concepts” section. This is my new desktop wallpaper. “Hey, Philip. That was my mind. And you blew it. Thanks so much. No, really, thanks.”

And, finally, I’d like to say that this never stops being funny. Ever:

“Sy Hoyven…den…sen.” Brilliant.